1/21/2016

“I think we’ll lose if he’s our nominee,” said Orrin Hatch, the most senior Republican in the Senate.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t feel he can appeal to people across the board,” Hatch said. “For us to win, we have to appeal to the moderates and independents. We can’t just act like that only one point of view is the only way to go. That’s where Ted is going to have some trouble.”

. . . .

“It would be a major challenge because of the wounds that are deep,” said Indiana Sen. Dan Coats, who is neutral in the race so far.

“An awful lot of us really didn’t like to be targeted as corrupt, establishment bought by the lobby establishment,” Coats added. “It sure looks like someone was using it as a way to gain notoriety as the only true conservative in Washington.”

. . . .

And Cruz’s accusation earlier this year that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a liar over his deal-making on the Export-Import Bank angered many Republicans.

“Ted Cruz has burned some bridges with some fellow senators,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. “You do see people coming out with more aggressive comments” ahead of Iowa.

Ah, but Donald Trump — now Hatch at least (like Bob Dole) seems to think he might not be that bad:

“I’ve come around a little bit on Trump,” Hatch said Thursday. “I’m not so sure we’d lose if he’s our nominee because he’s appealing to people who a lot of the Republican candidates have not appealed to in the past.”

Here are some other Senators who weighed in:

Sen. John Cornyn, Cruz’s fellow Texas Republican and the No. 2 in his conference, said GOP senators are unsettled by the roiling presidential race and what it could mean for their chances of keeping control of the Senate, where the party has a narrow 54-46 majority and faces several tough re-election races in left-leaning states like Illinois.

“I think people are concerned,” Cornyn told CNN. “Because obviously the top of the ticket will have a big bearing on whether we’ll hold a majority of the Senate. We don’t need any headwinds from the top of the ticket. We need some tailwinds.”

. . . .

“His ability to grow the vote of the Republican Party is almost zero,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who dropped out of the presidential race and is now backing Bush, said of Cruz. “He’ll easily be portrayed as ideological to a fault.”

Dan Coats. Shelley Moore Capito. John Cornyn. Lindsey Graham. Orrin Hatch. All of them are lining up to take potshots at the one guy who can stop Trump.

Now let me shift gears for a moment. Stay with me for just a moment. It’s worth it.

Do you remember December 20, 2015, when I related to you how Nancy Pelosi was boasting about how the Republicans had just passed an omnibus bill that surpassed the Democrats’ wildest dreams? I’ll turn the microphone over to the Patterico of last month:

The omnibus bill does not block or restrict in any way Syrian or Iraqi refugees from coming to the U.S. It does not defund Planned Parenthood. It does not defund Obama’s illegal executive amnesty. It does not defund sanctuary cities. It funds ObamaCare but delays two unpopular taxes under ObamaCare that might fuel opposition to the law. It will increase the debt with spending and tax cuts that are not paid for by spending cuts.

And now, Nancy Pelosi is not just doing a victory lap — she is bragging about how this was shoved down Republicans’ throats before they could learn what was in the bill:

“We’ve had to sort of calibrate how we presented this to members because … we were afraid [Republicans] might pull things out if more Republicans knew about what was in the bill,” she continued, explaining all the hesitation from Democrats in the hours after the bill was made public.

Earlier in the week, she had instructed members in a closed-door meeting to “keep on their long faces” and not speak publicly about everything Democrats won in the omnibus, according to a senior House aide. She wanted them to avoid speaking about provisions they fought to include, as well as poison pill policy riders they insisted be removed, instead suggesting they just say they were “still reading the language” when asked how they planned to vote.

“Now they’re done, that’s it. There’s no way they can change the rule or anything like that; the speaker said it’s closed,” said Pelosi on Friday, “so we feel pretty good about bragging about what’s in the bill to get our votes and also not risking changing anything in the bill.”

OK. So that was last month. Now here’s the fun part. On December 18, The Right Scoop published the Senate Roll Call of those who voted yea and nea on that crap omnibus bill. Here are the Senators who voted “yea” on the recent omnibus. You’ll notice I have placed some of the names in bold.

John McCain was the sixth senator to lift his leg and unload on Cruz to CNN — yet he voted against the crapnibus.

I’m not sure why he did. But he did.

For all of his faults in plenty of other areas, McCain has always been pretty solid about being against reckless deficit spending.

The GOP sure is in a fine mess: its leading candidate doesn’t give two figs about the party or its guiding principles, its candidate in the second spot is completely unpalatable to the bulk of the party poobahs, its third position candidate is one who the establishment thinks is too close to insurgents and who the insurgents think is too close to the establishment, and no one else seems to be able to gain traction.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see 20% of Republican Senators stab at Cruz.
You named 5 and to that list you can add Burr (who said he’d rather vote for Sanders), McConnell and McCain. Finding 3-4 more wouldn’t be hard.
If Cruz is nominated, their words will be featured prominently in the “Ted Cruz. Too extreme even for his own party” ads of the Democratic nominee.
Most American voters are not really going to know much about Cruz except his own party “statesmen” hate him. it is disgraceful that these Republicans would rather give us 4-8 more years of socialism, 4-8 years of liberal activist Supreme Court appointees just to spite Cruz.

Obviously though, Cruz has not learned how argue his points without alienating his opponents and if he wants to win, he is going to have to hold his nose and build some alliances with people whose policies he despises and convince them to move with him to at least a position of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” rather than the current “the enemy of my enemy is my enemy”.

All that said, I like Cruz, but I think both Hillary, Sanders (even Biden) beat Cruz going away.
I think Cruz should have waited 4-8 years more before running.
On the other thread someone said that (paraphrasing here) if all the R candidates below Trump and Cruz in the polls would throw their support behind Cruz, Trump would falter.
That doesn’t seem likely.

Do you remember Ford, talking about Reagan in 1980, saying “No one to the right of me can win”? That’s what these Senate mossbacks just reminded of.

nk (dbc370) — 1/21/2016 @ 10:08 pm

Can’t say that I do remember that. All I remember of Ford was the Mayaguez, and W.I.N.!. He was a President of convenience who just couldn’t/didn’t do much. In fairness, he was handed a really crappy circumstance with almost no time to fix it.

Do you remember Ford, talking about Reagan in 1980, saying “No one to the right of me can win”?

Can’t remember that, either. Maybe you’re thinking about 1976 when Reagan challenged him and would have beat him had Convention delegates had a free choice. As it turned out, Ford narrowly lost to Carter and Reagan probably would have lost big time. 1976 was not a good GOP year after Watergate and the pardon.

Note that any GOP candidate running would beat Sanders if he’s the nominee and the press reports Sanders’ positions truthfully. But of course that won’t happen, and there’s enough fear on the gravy train that some of those “Republican” Senators will campaign for Sanders if Cruz is the nominee.

Creating an phony reality in which the media and the establishment “love” Trump over the next month isn’t going to erase the past 8 months of vitriol he endured when he changed the national conscience on a host of issues.

Nor is it going to change the realization that Cruz has about $80 million in “donations” (bribes) from the establishment.

Steve, seriously, just what would you have expected out of Ford? He had just a hair over 2 years for a job that normally takes four just to get fully into it. You being a squid should at least appreciate that the Mayaguez wasn’t permitted to be another Pueblo. Reading the rest of my comment, you saw I’m sure W.I.N- which was probably one of the stupidest public policies ever foisted on the country up to that point. On the whole, Ford was just a placeholder. Carter was inevitable after Nixon and you full well know it. You can hate on Ford all you want. I don’t. It’s sorta like being upset with a substitute social studies teacher 40 years later.

And you can stop being irritated with me over firefighters. Yes- they have a tough job. But so do cops, military personnel, and paramedics. I’ve never surveyed any of them over job satisfaction. I have to guess that if they didn’t like at least some aspect the job, they wouldn’t take it.

It’s far more likely that they want Cruz gone and then hope his voters will shift to Bush or Rubio. They’ve all spent months try to destroy Trump and we should assume their reasons for this are good enough for them. They are more than happy to see the two front runners trash each other and they’ll help that fight along, if only to let their own men come in later and claim the crown. Don’t get too excited about this Pat.

Its nice to know the Ford supporters haven’t gotten any smarter in the last 36 years. Ford was the only President whose approval ratings went down after he gave a speech on TV. LBJ famously said Ford was so stupid “he couldn’t fart and chew gum at the same time”. And he was picked by Nixon as VP because the Democrats liked him.

He finally ended up losing in 1976 because he decided to tell the America people that “The USSR doesn’t dominate Eastern Europe”. He made Jimmy Carter seem like a Genius.

Team republican has no excuse not to back conservative Ted, other than they are not conservative. Not enough bad things can happen to team stupid. Team republican should be hoisting Ted on their shoulders as he articulates the proper moves to be made to get this country back on track. But heck no, we have to be punished with a crap storm from team diarrhea.
Cruz/West
eff the rest.

I remember comments by Ford that Reagan was too extreme and too far right to win. He said it campaigning in 1976 (here and here) and he specifically said in a debate that “anybody to the right of me, Democrat or Republican, can’t win a natonal election.”

I remember Ford promising that if confirmed as Nixon’s VP (and heir apparent) he would serve out Nixon’s term and not seek the presidency for himself.

Then, of course, Ford decided to run for president. His son came to my college campus campaigning for his father. After his stump speech he took questions from the audience. I reminded him of his father’s pledge and asked if his father lied to get confirmed could the voters ever trust him.

To his credit he acknowledged the pledge but went on to explain that subsequent events combined to demonstrate the nation needed him more than he had earlier assumed.

In the last 15 years, what has the federal GOP and conservatives done? Reduce government spending? Eliminate agency departments? Transfer power from the federal government to the states? Control immigration? Only item that I can remember is expirable tax cuts. And don’t get into judges. We are told that we need a conservative President for judges, and then the Senate can’t confirm them (that is why we have Kennedy) or idiot Bush appoints Roberts.

The only accomplishment of the federal GOP and establishment conservatives is losing. And making sure that they keep the campaign donations flowing.

If we just get the damn wall, that would be an achievement not had in the last 15 years.

Betsie ten Boom had an unusual perspective in the midst of Nazi atrocities in WWII. She said that she felt sorry for the German people, as she knew God would not allow their treatment of the Jewish people to go unpunished.
(Betsie was the much less well known sister to Corrie, as Corrie survived the prison camps and lived to tell and write about it.)

God is not pleased when a nation loves lies more than truth, selfish ill-gotten gain (“Hey, you owe me your stuff”) more than self control, saying what is right is now wrong (heterosexual monogamy is so intolerant). In fact, He said to Jeremiah, “How can I not judge a people like this?”
But Nineveh deserved such punishment as well, but God in His mercy sent a prophet and the people repented.

I don’t know how things are going to shake out, but the Sovereign Lord God Almighty does rule the nations, and the hearts of kings and princes are in His hand, and He raises up and brings low those whom He will for His own just and righteous purposes.
But we must never think that this truth means things always get better in the short run, or even the long run this side of eternity.

“Cruz won by effectively scuttling the Gang of 8’s Amnesty attempt. Rubio was a critical piece of the Gang of 8.”

No, the Gang of 8 bill passed in the Senate. Cruz tried (God bless him), but failed to stop the bill in the Senate. It was scuttled in the House when Dave Brat defeated Majority House Leader Eric Cantor in the 2014 primary.

In fact, the Gang of 8 bill was going to be called up for a vote on a Thursday. The GOP leadership whipped the vote count, and they had the votes to pass the bill. Two days before Brat defeats Cantor in the GOP primary. The votes vanish and the GOP avoided shooting themselves and the country in the foot.

“IMO Cruz did accomplish something more important than most…
he kept a campaign promise!!!”

Granted. And I don’t mind distinguishing Trump on ethanol, eminent domain, and his past positions and support of liberal positions. All valid.

But when the author of the blog attacks Trump supporters as “buffoons”, one could ask why the Cruz supporters are “losers”. I mean Cruz and the conservative movement always seem to lose in the long term . . .

I could think that, at this time, it doesn’t matter too much to some people by what margin Donald Trump wins in Iowa, but it really matters who comes in second. Donald Trump is going to be the top candidate in New Hampshire anyway, but if Cruz is not among the top two finishers in Iowa, he won’t be such a big contender in New Hampshire.

And then people not inclined to vote for Trump would tend to vote for Kasich, or Chrisie or Rubio, and Cruz might come in fourth in New Hampshire, and his whole balloon then deflate.

I remember comments by Ford that Reagan was too extreme and too far right to win.

What’s worse is that such sentiment in 2016 is against the backdrop of a society that is far more liberal, if not out-and-out leftist, today than it was back in the 1980s, much less even longer ago. I could have tolerated a Ford in the 1950s or 1940s. But today?

More and more people have become desensitized to the effects of creeping liberalism, and based on opinion polls showing the percentage of younger Americans who favor left-leaning ideas and public figures has gone up, current trends are going to get worse and worse in the future.

I now understand far better why it’s so easy for societies to naturally become increasingly debased or decadent.

First, I like Cruz. But unfortunately, he doesn’t win except for TPA which he later opposed. What changes when Cruz is President when McConnell and Ryan stand in his way? Will they just fold to him? What happens when the bureaucracy leaks to the NYT or Wash Post as under Bush and undermines his administration?

Explain to me the Corker- Cardin travesty and Mr. Cruz. Moreover, Mr.Sanders can show up 95% for Senate votes while Mr. Cruz who was a.w.o.l on the fed audit bill he help co-write. The idea that Mr. Cruz is the perfect wrecking ball to the politics of his own party needs a closer look.

The insider quote from 63:
“We can live with Trump,” said Richard F. Hohlt, a veteran lobbyist, reflecting his colleagues’ sentiment at a Republican National Committee meeting last week in Charleston, S.C. “Do they all love Trump? No. But there’s a feeling that he is not going to layer over the party or install his own person. Whereas Cruz will have his own people there.”

SEARCH AMAZON USING THIS SEARCH BOX:
Purchases made through this search function benefit this site, at no extra cost to you.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.